Re: Acessibility of <audio> and <video>

Lachlan Hunt wrote:
> The longdesc attribute is not included for the img element.  It has been 
> clearly demonstrated in past discussions that it is a complete failure 
> in practice

It's not clear to everyone. :) I still think the evidence tells you 
infinitely more about the dire effects of bad implementations on 
authoring habits than the merits of programmatically determinable 
associations (such as rapid non-linear navigation and easy content 
extraction).

> and pursuing it as a solution for video is, IMO, a waste of 
> time.  Plus, I have already explained why any sort of long description, 
> whether it be a transcript, full text alternative, or whatever else, is 
> useful to more people than just those with accessibility needs. 

This is entirely true, but if anything it merely reinforces the benefits 
of a programmatically determinable association between a video and its 
transcript.

> Any links to a long description should be done using ordinary, visible links 
> from within the surrounding content.

Nothing stops longdesc (or a similar mechanism) and a visible link 
pointing at the same location. But only an explicit mechanism can 
provide a programmatically determinable association.

--
Benjamin Hawkes-Lewis

Received on Thursday, 4 September 2008 19:08:57 UTC